Injection moulding is a technique that allows production to be scaled to great proportions. The bulk of the cost is related to the initial expense of creating the mould and the price paid per unit. After this, the manufacturing costs are very low. 

Other advantages of this method include:

• A lower amount of scrap produced — In comparison to other manufacturing processes such as CNC machining, injection moulding produces very low amounts of scrap material. Other techniques may require large proportions of the original material (e.g. plastic block) to be cut away, whereas, in injection moulding, this cutting does not happen, resulting in lower amounts of scrap material. Typically the only scrap material produced is the one that flows out of the mould during the moulding process. 
• Uniformity — One of the major advantages of using injection moulding as a manufacturing technique is that each part produced is exactly identical. This allows consistency between production material, allowing businesses to maintain brand consistency whilst maintaining high volume production. Brand consistency is essential for a business's success as customers seek to have exactly the same product. Another advantage of creating uniform parts is that highly complex parts can be easily mass produced with ease. 
• Cost-effective — Injection moulding allows thousands of parts/units to be manufactured using a single mould. This means that in a small amount of time a large number of parts are produced, all of which are exactly the same and consistent with each other. This reduces labour costs in a factory setting and makes injection moulding cost-effective and efficient.

The Design Process

The only downside of using injection moulding is that the upfront costs may be high. Before the mould is produced, the design must be tested multiple times to ensure that there are no issues. Ensuring that the design is the right one involves:

• Creating an initial prototype using a 3D printer then testing it to see if it performs optimally
• Creating an injection mould tool for the final design
• Carrying out final adjustments in the injection mould tool before mass production

However, once the design process is completed, the process is simplified and manufacturing can proceed with ease. It is important to go through each step of the design process to ensure that the final product is of high standards. 

Before selecting injection moulding as a manufacturing process, businesses need to ensure they go through each step of the design process.

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